US embassy cable - 05VATICAN479

UNCLAS  VATICAN 000479 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT. FOR EUR/WE (LEVIN); EUR/PPD; INR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PINR, VT, religious freedom 
SUBJECT: BENEDICT XVI: LOOKING AHEAD TO THE NEW PONTIFICATE - PART 
TWO 
 
REF: A) VATICAN 0467; B) VATICAN 0475; C) VATICAN 0477 
 
1.  (U) This cable is the second of a series previewing the 
pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI.  The first part (ref b) 
examined the reasons for the election of Pope Benedict and 
initial signals on directions for his papacy.  This second cable 
examines the approach he is likely to take on major issues.  A 
third cable will address the way that Benedict is likely to 
govern the Church and the dynamics of his management of the 
Curia. 
 
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Summary 
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2.  (SBU) The pontificate of Benedict XVI is not likely to bring 
about dramatic changes on issues facing the Catholic Church 
internally or externally.  As one of John Paul II's closest 
collaborators, and one who perhaps more than any other member of 
the Curia helped shape John Paul II's pontificate, it would be 
unthinkable, as one of Pope Benedict's closest collaborators 
told us last week, that Pope Benedict would shift the Holy See's 
main doctrinal lines on core moral issues such as abortion, 
euthanasia, artificial contraception, cloning, and 
homosexuality.  Despite his strong defense of Catholic doctrine 
in a major 1999 document, he has already demonstrated a desire 
to continue John Paul II's efforts to promote inter-religious 
dialogue, and may be able to make more progress on 
Orthodox-Catholic dialogue than his Slavic predecessor.  Pope 
Benedict has also indicted that he will press to continue 
expanding the Holy See's diplomatic relations to encompass 
countries where Catholic populations have faced religions 
restrictions and Muslim countries where Catholic populations are 
small or forced underground.  On issues of war and peace, 
Benedict XVI, whose experience of World War II remains vivid, 
will continue John Paul II's efforts to promote peace.  At the 
same time, recognizing the need to confront evil, he will be 
open to the idea that war may be necessary as a last resort.  As 
a theologian who has devoted his life to theological debates, 
the new pope's views on international issues will likely take 
shape over time through his meetings with heads of state and 
government and in his contact with this Curial team -- which 
remains unchanged to date from that of John Paul II.  He is said 
to like the United States, had more Americans on his staff than 
most other Curial heads, and sent an important signal with his 
first appointment, calling an American to head the Holy See's 
most important dicastery.   End Summary. 
 
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From Prefect to Pope 
-------------------- 
 
3.  (SBU) While many observers are seeking to draw conclusions 
about the contours of Benedict XVI's pontificate based on his 21 
years as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the 
Faith (CDF), many Vatican officials have cautioned that there is 
a vast difference between being Prefect of CDF and being Pope. 
Ratzinger is no longer the Church's top official for 
safeguarding Catholic theological orthodoxy, and it will no 
longer fall to him personally to set wayward theologians or 
other Catholics back on the straight and narrow path.  He has 
already softened his image as doctrinal enforcer, and begun his 
effort to convince the world of what describes as "the common 
values and common truths on the essentials of human life -- how 
to live and how to respond to the great challenges of our time." 
 Specifically, Benedict XVI has called for "moral 
responsibility, love and justice" to be introduced into the 
world of work, trade and politics. 
 
4.  (SBU) While Benedict will no longer have to "play the heavy" 
on doctrine, this does not translate into greater freedom 
generally for the new pontiff.  On the contrary, he will no 
longer be as free to speak and act as he was prior to his 
election as the 264th successor of Peter.  As a global leader in 
a global age, Pope Benedict XVI's every word will be analyzed 
and taken as the authoritative view of the Catholic Church. 
Early indications are that Benedict is well aware of these 
distinctions, and that he has the potential to frame with 
clarity some of the leading international challenges of the 
twenty-first century.  In the first month of his pontificate, he 
has signaled his desire to seek consensus, build bridges, listen 
to differing opinions, and speak the language of reconciliation 
and rapprochement.  Most Church observers have been enthusiastic 
upon seeing the human side of Benedict few witnessed before his 
election. 
 
 
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Staying the Course on "Moral Issues" 
------------------------------------ 
 
5.  (SBU) The warmer public image of Pope Benedict XVI that has 
developed (and which his close associates assure us is much 
closer to reality than the traditional media portrayal of 
Cardinal Ratzinger) does not mean he has plans for a makeover of 
the Catholic Church's uncompromising stands on the sexual, 
bioethical, and family issues facing Catholics and the world 
community.  Associates of the new pope have assured us there 
will be no change in the Catholic Church's position on abortion, 
euthanasia, artificial contraception, cloning, divorce and 
homosexuality.  Benedict's approach to bioethical and 
biotechnological issues is likely to be founded on the core 
question:  are new scientific procedures and possibilities 
conducive to real human advancement or will they lead to human 
destruction?  The new pope will reach out to women, but he will 
not ordain them as priests.  Benedict XVI will continue to 
support the Catholic Church's considerable efforts to care for 
persons with HIV/AIDS, its ban on condoms notwithstanding. 
During his inauguration homily he spoke of the human race living 
in a kind of desert -- a world without respect for human dignity 
and purpose with little regard for the Church's perspective on 
the issues noted above.  He implied that as pope he would seek 
to address what he described as the deserts within, the 
"emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal 
of human life" that he believes contribute to the deserts of 
poverty, hunger, and other earthly ills. 
 
6.  (SBU) In this regard, Benedict will maintain his 
predecessor's attention to poverty and development issues, to 
human rights, and religious freedom.  In one area of continuing 
U.S. human rights focus -- human trafficking -- Pope Benedict 
has already spoken of his concern for this issue, ensuring that 
we will be able to continue the recent progress made with the 
Holy See in combating and preventing trafficking in persons. 
Pope John Paul had provided moral backing for our trafficking 
initiatives with various Holy See departments.  Just prior to 
his election, Pope Benedict publicly condemned human 
trafficking, trafficking in organs, and human slavery during the 
Good Friday meditations he delivered that were broadcast live to 
hundreds of millions of television viewers. 
 
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First Message to Diplomats 
-------------------------- 
 
7.  (SBU) In his first formal meeting with the Vatican 
diplomatic corps May 12, Pope Benedict outlined for the first 
time his broad foreign policy priorities, again signaling strong 
continuities with John Paul II's focus on human dignity, human 
rights, peace, and social and economic development.  Citing his 
origins from a country "that has known war and the separation of 
brothers even from the same country," he stressed that he will 
be "particularly sensitive to dialogue" among different peoples, 
and would work to overcome international conflict and tensions. 
Describing Nazism and Communism as destructive and inhumane 
ideologies that imposed a yoke of oppression, Benedict said the 
Church, diplomats, governments and people of good will were 
charged with building a peaceful society to "vanquish the 
temptation to pit cultures, ethnic groups and differing world 
views against each other." 
 
8. (U) Recalling Pope John Paul II's "unique service to the 
cause of the unity of the human family", he recommitted the Holy 
See to safeguarding the fundamental human rights under threat in 
different parts of the world.  The Church would work, he said, 
to ensure every person had the right to life, nutrition, 
shelter, health care, the protection of the family, and social 
development.  Our bilateral cooperation with the new pope and 
his administration is likely to find fertile soil in these areas. 
 
9. (SBU) The biggest surprise of his first presentation was his 
pointed appeal to China and other nations that have yet to 
establish formal diplomatic relations with the Holy See (ref c). 
 The Holy See already has relations with 174 countries, and the 
pope made clear that he would like to extend that representation 
even further.  Leaving no doubt of his focus on China and 
Vietnam in particular, he expressed his hope that countries 
(such as China) that had sent condolence messages on the death 
of his predecessor or had send delegations to the funeral (such 
as Vietnam) would soon be represented at the Vatican.  This 
signals Pope Benedict's desire to build on Pope John Paul II's 
broad foundation of international activity and, in this way, to 
 
 
expand the religious liberty for Catholics and those of other 
faiths. 
 
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Sexual Abuse 
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10.  (SBU) By most accounts, Benedict is intimately aware of the 
details of sexual-abuse scandals that have consumed the media in 
recent years.  In fact, some of his close associates have 
suggested he is perhaps more familiar with the dimensions and 
details of the problem than any other Curial official, given 
that his former Congregation is the Vatican department that 
oversees the investigation of clergy charged with abuse.  One 
former colleague who worked in CDF with Ratzinger for years told 
us that staff routinely reviewed the files of allegations 
against clergy the world over every Friday with Ratzinger, a 
process that they came to refer to as their "Friday penance." 
Benedict XVI may well believe that in the case of the crisis in 
the U.S. Church, the American media treated the clergy as a 
group unfairly, and in some cases have used the crisis to 
promote their own agendas.  But he has no doubt that the crisis 
was real.  In a stern sermon delivered before the conclave (ref 
a) in which he decried all types of evil facing society, the 
pope lashed out at the "filth" to be found among Catholic 
clergy.  Our contacts were struck by the strength of the 
language, and told us that Ratzinger's German text had used an 
even stronger word.  None of this means that Rome will overturn 
centuries of traditional hesitation in stepping into the 
personnel matters of individual dioceses; however, Benedict XVI 
will give due attention to the state of seminary training and 
the type of men who want to become priests (a program of checks 
begins shortly in American seminaries.)  He may also offer more 
guidance to bishops on these issues than did Pope John Paul II. 
 
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Inter-religious Dialogue 
------------------------ 
 
11.  (SBU) After his election as pope, the sensationalistic 
British press ran headlines about young Joseph Ratzinger's 
membership in the Hitler Youth.  Some observers also depicted 
him as hostile to other faiths, particularly due to a document 
issued in 2000 on the nature of the Church and the process of 
salvation that pronounced Christ and the Catholic Church as 
unique in that process -- a document that was intended to 
address internal Church debates rather than its relations with 
other faiths.  In fact, Ratzinger was a major part of Pope John 
Paul's great strides in ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue. 
 John Paul II generally pushed forward with his initiatives on 
this front only after securing the theological and 
ecclesiastical underpinnings necessary to do so, and Ratzinger 
was the official who gave him that backing.  Ratzinger's career 
and his words since becoming pope suggest he will continue to 
reach out to other Christian churches and to other world 
religions, particularly Judaism and Islam. 
 
12.  (SBU) Comments about the new Pope from religious leaders 
around the world have with few exceptions been very positive, 
especially among Muslims and Jews.  Fr. Norbert Hofmann, the 
Secretary of the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations 
 
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with Jews, told us he expected great things from the Ratzinger 
papacy.  He noted that Benedict had granted his first private 
audience for a Vatican dicastery to his office.  Though it 
probably didn't hurt that Hofmann and his boss, Cardinal Walter 
Kasper, are Germans, the signal is significant, and has been 
backed up by a number of early public references by the new pope 
for his desire to build close ties with Judaism.  Benedict XVI 
will almost certainly insist on the Catholic Church taking an 
unwavering position on its doctrine within future ecumenical and 
inter-religious dialogue, but this clarity and honesty, combined 
with a desire for dialogue, could yield tangible results in a 
process that has suffered from a lack of clear guidelines for 
many Catholics engaged in dialogue with other faiths. 
 
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War, Peace, Iraq 
---------------- 
 
13.  (SBU) On issues of war and peace, Benedict XVI has been 
consistent and vocal.  After September 11, he strongly condemned 
religiously-inspired violence and noted that the Christian 
tradition of just war theory needed to be updated on the basis 
of "new dangers" in the world.  However, in the lead-up to the 
coalition's invasion of Iraq, Ratzinger stated repeatedly and 
 
 
unequivocally that the concept of preventive war did not appear 
in the official teachings of the Catholic Church, and maintained 
that the war against Iraq had no moral justification.  As 
coalition troops took control of the country, Ratzinger 
expressed his satisfaction that the end of the war was drawing 
near.  Like Pope John Paul II, he turned the page on the 
decision to go to war, and described the end of hostilities as a 
chance to "begin again," urging broad participation by the 
international community in the reconstruction of Iraq. 
Ratzinger emphasized the benefits of multilateralism and his 
preference for a preeminent role for the United Nations, 
declaring that no one nation should ever make decisions for the 
world.  Pope Benedict XVI is therefore likely to continue to 
advocate multilateralism on war and peace issues.  Because of 
his close experience of the evil of some ideologies, he will 
continue to recognize that nations may justifiably use force to 
defend their citizens, but he, like John Paul II, will likely 
express a hearty skepticism for the benefits of any war. 
 
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Comment 
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14.  (SBU)  Taking on the papacy after one of the longest and 
most compelling reigns in history, Pope Benedict XVI has made a 
strong start as pontiff.  He has maintained respect for his 
predecessor while tracing the outlines of what he plans to be 
the work of his own pontificate. In this way, he has succeeded 
in assuring the faithful with continuity, while at the same time 
making clear his desire to pursue this course with his own 
approach.  Significantly, he has made clear that he see himself 
first and foremost as the successor of the Apostle Peter, not of 
John Paul II. 
 
15.  (SBU)  In foreign affairs, Pope Benedict XVI will, as he 
indicated to the diplomatic corps, continue to pursue the same 
broad goals as John Paul II, using the Holy See's moral voice to 
promote human dignity, peace, and social and economic 
development.  While he will certainly develop his own 
distinctive style in foreign affairs, he is coming to the papacy 
at an advanced age, without substantial foreign policy 
experience, and will not have the luxury of time that John Paul 
II had to develop detailed global geo-political expertise.  Our 
contacts in the Curia expect Pope Benedict to rely on the 
Vatican Foreign Ministry as he wades into these issues.  In 
fact, one senior official noted that his address to the 
diplomatic corps was the only one of his early addresses that he 
did not draft himself.  By keeping Secretary of State Sodano and 
Secretary for Relations with States Lajolo in their positions, 
 
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he has foreign affairs counsel that he trusts, and which will 
ensure broad continuity in the Vatican's successful foreign 
engagement. 
 
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 2005VATICA00479 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED